Today I went to the bank AND I dropped off dry cleaning. It’s like I’m a real grown up or something. Now I need to make travel plans and convince a rental car company not to charge me a million dollars just because I’m under 25. Also I was in the newspaper (well, college newspaper) talking about Brown’s fight song. I assure you that my estimate of the number of people who know the lyrics to said song is much more accurate than the other estimate in the article. Considering the BDH told me that less than half of the students they polled were aware that we even had a fight song, I highly doubt 40% of them know the words. Regardless, I am mad excited for tomorrow’s football game vs. Harvard.

Yo, Brown students reading this, learn the freaking words to Ever True. There’s a link to a recording at the top of the article, so GO SING ALONG NOW! As mentioned, most people sing a mix of the original and altered versions. My preferred premium blend:

We are ever true to Brown,
For we love our college dear
And wherever we may go (where are we going?)
We are READY! with a beer (waves hand to symbolize “beer”)
And the people always say
That you can’t out-drink (mime drinking) Brown men (AND WOMEN!)
With a scotch and rye
and a KI YI YI
And a B-R-O-W-N!

Augh. It’s a very good thing I thrive when I’m way too busy, since I’ll likely be way too busy for the rest of my life, but this unfortunately means that I don’t get to make fancy meals as often as I’d like. My meals growing up always had a starch, a protein, and a veggie (or sometimes a veggie and a salad). During classes, I tend not to have the time to make all of these things and end up with pasta and veggies, or mac and cheese. My schedule will be slightly less gross after this week, as I’m dropping a class that will be replaced with Fibers and Dyeing, though that class was the least amount of work.

But anyway, my Thursdays are light, and I made delicious foods: Chicken Pad Thai! It’s a really yummy and easy dish to make, provided you have a few finicky ingredients: rice noodles, bean sprouts, and (cheater alert) Pad Thai sauce. I promise you I’d try to make the sauce from scratch but I have no clue where to buy tamarinds.

Fill a bowl with very hot tap water and plop your rice noodles in there. Set a timer for 30 minutes for them to soak. The rest of the prep won’t take the full 30 minutes so feel free to check your email at this point.

While they’re soaking, chop up your scallions and peanuts for later. Then, heat oil in a big ol’ pan or wok, then quickly scramble the egg and remove from the pan. Add more oil as necessary throughout the process. Then cook the chicken or other protein all the way through and remove from pan (little pieces are best). If you coordinated it right, your timer is now going off. Drain the noodles and stir fry them for about 5 minutes, adding the pad thai sauce towards the end. I used about 4 ounces. Then add in the scallions and peanuts, and stir fry another minute or two. Toss in the bean sprouts and serve with lime.

SO GOOD. In the words of Megan, “It’s as good as at a restaurant!” (blush).

The Textiles department at RISD has graciously allowed me entrance into their Fibers and Dyeing class. It is so choice. I will be learning how to spin on a wheel, dye yarn and fabric, and all about different sorts of textiles. It’s pretty boss.

On the first day of class, I was sent home with

Hand carders: like a giant, super-sharp dog brush

Drop spindle, bottom whorl. For making wool into yarn.

Uncarded, unwashed, mercifully un-full-of-sheep-poop wool.

Now, I’ve done a little bit of spinning before, but I’d never used a low-whorl spindle, nor had I ever carded wool (which involves separating out the curly locks into something more useable), nor had I ever spun unwashed wool, which smells like sheep and is full of lanolin.

This was not made any easier by the presence of this nice fellow:

Who, me?

He’s very interested in the wool (“HEY did you know, this smells like farm!”), the spinning spindle, and worst of all, the yarn as it was hanging to dry.

The danger zone.

Thank goodness, I was able to prevent all major cat-astrophes (see what I did there?) and managed to complete my homework, which was to make 10 differing yarns from the different types of wool and other mystery fibers we were given.

It was process-intensive but lots of fun: I carded the wool, combined it, spun it, washed it and wound it.

Tada!

Now I just need to figure out why the course isn’t showing up on my internal records yet.

I went to figure drawing at AS220, a local art space, yesterday. I draw figures frequently enough, but it tends just to be my friends or people in a coffee shop for as long as it takes them to notice I’m drawing them. I hadn’t properly sat and drawn with a model since taking the introductory visual arts studio class my sophomore year fall.

Rapid-fire poses: I like working quickly

Longer poses are also acceptable.

I whine about them, but I was generally pleased with my work.

The bottom image is slightly skewed but then my camera ran out of battery before I could take another picture.

For slightly different views and style, check out Sara’s blog entry from the same night.

I do apologize for this blog’s rapid transformation from food-fiber-art into sentimental nonsense.

That said, in relation to my med school applications, holy crap. I have submitted 13 secondaries out of 15 schools applied to: one school hasn’t sent me a secondary (yet?) and another is not a rolling-admissions deal so I’m taking my time. My advising committee letter has been submitted to the application service, as have two character letters requested by some schools. 13 out of 15 applications are totally, completely done, and I can do nothing more until I am offered an interview (or not). I am left to wait and think positively and hope that not too many people will ask about my status.

Right now, it feels a bit to me like the generations are shifting- we adolescents are becoming real live “young adults,” our parents are approaching retirement age. I think two things cemented this for me: meeting the child (who is six months old and super cute) of a young woman I grew up with, and hearing from one of my best friends that she already has a job offer post-graduation. By attending medical school right after college, I suppose I’m slowing my entry into the “real world.” I can’t wait, though- I’ve got a lot of apprehension and excitement, and I have no idea where I’ll be living this time next year: NYC, Boston, Chicago, Ann Arbor, D.C., Atlanta, Philly, Tampa, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Orlando or Miami.

This, of course, reminds me of a song I loved in high school, by Motion City Soundtrack, a band to which my friend Kyra and I did a lot of jamming in the car on the way to school: